Craig Hickman

(American, b.1948)

Untitled, pg. 28 from Mars Observations, 2001-2003

Untitled, pg. 29 from Mars Observations, 2001-2003

Untitled, pg. 36 from Mars Observations, 2001-2003

But I have always felt that I worked outside the mainstream because I prefer the computer for its ability to create new relationships, locate patterns, organize and paginate, rather than as a “collaging” or “effects” tool.

– Craig Hickman

Craig Hickman’s Mars Observations project takes multiple forms: it is an artist’s book, a series of larger paired prints meant for wall hanging, and a book published in iterations. Whatever final form they take, the works in this project organize pictures and text in blocks and columns much like magazine spreads; yet while the straight-forward style of shooting and grouping of similar shapes and colors implies a catalogue or illustration, the text is decidedly harder to read. Using programs that substitute arrows for letters, select for words of a particular length, and otherwise play with language, Hickman makes visual associations between text and image while in the process pointing up the many patterns and codes of communication.

Craig Hickman is the innovator of Kid Pix software, and holds a BS from Portland State University (1971) and an MFA from University of Washington, Seattle (1981). He discovered computer programming in the mid-1970s while a photography student at Evergreen State College and was named SIGGRAPH Pioneer of Computer Graphics in 1998. His work is in the collections of the Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Archive of Visual and Concrete Poetry, Miami Beach, Florida; Seattle Arts Commission, Washington; and the George Eastman House, Rochester, New York. The Museum of Contemporary Photography exhibited Mars Observations in 2003 in conjunction with the exhibition Beyond Digital Novelty: Paul Berger 1972-2003.

- Kendra Greene

http://mocp.org/exhibitions/2003/03/beyond_digital.php

http://www.pixelpoppin.com/vapor/mars/